6:45 Sunday morning and again I find myself at Coode Street car park waiting for the Sunday Hills ride. I wasn’t the first to arrive today there were three or four others. Looking forward to when the days get longer as its still dark at 7am. Around five past 7 Peter rang his bell and gave his normal speech and then it was time to roll out.
Canning Mills Road was the first climb of the day and so we headed out past Curtin Uni towards Albany Hwy. We were broken a couple of times by lights so pulled over in Cannington and and waited for the rest of the group to catch up. Our transition out too Canning Mills Road was uneventful. At the lights crossing Tokin Hwy I was thinking turn off brain and wake me up once I get to the top. Round the round about and a short downhill roll until the road starts heading skyward. I remember thinking enjoy this feeling because its about to get bad. Quickly I took my rightful position at the back of the group. Watching everyone else zooming ahead is a real bummer. Clicking through the gears trying to find my rhythm. Up and on the pedals the climb begins. I managed to keep a speed of around 16 ~ 17kph on the way up. Around half way I managed to get on the wheel and pass Lennie. I think she was saving herself for the climbs to follow. Lots of cars passed us today. One came a little to close to me for comfort but sort of use to that now.
Once at the top I was not as buggered as I thought I would be and this time I didn’t ride past the regroup point. Short drink of water and Peter instructed the main group to head off. Back onto Canning Mills Road and only seven of us today for the main group. Again I quickly found myself as the sweeper (I like this description and will stick with it). Once we reached Canning road a short comfort stop for a few and the suggestion was raised to go though Pickering Brook. I haven’t ridden through there before so was keen to give it a go. I wasn’t prepared for it and that’s the best way. No time to dread it. I was expecting a real bad climb out here but it was only a gradual climb. Nice scenery out here and considering how long I lived in the hills surprised I didn’t know that area. Was some other cycling event being run out there because we saw a number of other riders and event ahead signs. Back to the story. A short regroup and then it was a very good down hill run. 60kph all the was down. Walnut Road was awesome. On the approach you see the bottom but you don’t see the drop. Then you reach it and it is virtually goes straight down. This was awesome. Best descent we have ridden. So good to ride a descent that is not just a straight run like Welshpool Road.
The group navigated our way to Mundaring Weir road. The group quickly spread out on the climb. A mention here through we owned the road up Mundaring Weir. A woman driving a small truck came up behind us and for majority of Mundaring Weir road this driver followed the road rules and didn’t over take us. Holding up a convoy of cars behind her. No rushing to get past. Was like a support car sitting on the rear. Was great.
All of us reached Kalamunda and were keen on the coffee shop stop. One of our group continued on and went home. Merchant had a couple groups already there but not too busy. Everyone got their order in around 10 minutes. I think we hung around for 30 minutes or so before heading back out on the trip back to South Perth. I clocked a speed of 80.9kph down Welshpool Road today. Fastest descent ever. The group sat on around 36 to 40kph for most the trip. We jumped on the back of another group who did their best to drop us but didn’t work. They turned off and it gave a couple of us the chance to catch up to the rest of the group that went with them. I don’t know what speed they were doing because we were doing 40kph. I think a tail wind helped because this was my dead patch just was not feeling it. Was a great return trip mostly sitting above 35kph back to Coode Street. Was a great ride today even though it was more than I was prepared for. Was pleased to see that for my segment between 80 – 90 kms I clocked an average of 39.1 kph. Very happy with that considering this was towards the end of my ride.
Route can be seen here.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37474696
(drinking wine @ the folks and I’m tired so sorry if this write up makes no sense)
pete asked me to write the blog up, as he is up to his ears in new family and new cycling club stuff. fair request i thought. As for me, no real excuse for being late with the write up.
i arrived early on sunday for a change, and was pleased to see about 18 – 20 including a good compliment of medical specialists as usual, and pete! we headed out with peter and brendan leading till well into albany hwy, and thereafter steady rotations in front at around 28 -31km/h. there was a moderate to strong headwind all the way to the first hill; kahuna.
it’s a good steady climb – i started out near the front and watched them come past; peter, stu, brendan, warren, dan, etc. then jon b and i rode together for a while – which is becoming a pattern. near the top i thought he was on my tail, and tried to get away, but it was actually shao (sp?) and he passed me easily as he chased the leaders. points at the top were: brendan – 10, stu – 7, warren – 5, bill – 3, peter – 1.
i think i was 7th at the top of the hill, mainly due to the absence of ryan (racing), michael b (heart surgery – fair excuse) and dr jerry (chasing lance at tour down under). we had to whistle really loudly to stop dr carl from going straight over the top – he looked like he was on a mission in search for coffee; in the drops, head down and in the zone. the group was down to about twelve riders by that stage, with the short riders taking on of the earlier hills straight up to the coffee shop.
then the dog-leg via chevin, and the great downhill of urch, before the horror uphill of peet. luckily i had a head start from the downhill, but as usual it was not enough. for a while i actually thought i may be in the points there. i hung in with the front bunch till past the top of the steep bit, but then it just got too hard (read “i didn’t want it badly enough”) and i fell back. that was ok; i was still in 5th position and in the running for my first point of 2009. then warren came past, and i thought i might latch onto him, and chase the group for some serious points; but he made it clear that he was on a chase, not a rescue mission. i watched him and my one point disappear up the hill to rolystone high school.
brendan – 10, peter – 7, dan – 5, warren – 3, stu – 1
we regrouped, and then headed down the hill to the t-junction at brookton hwy; and turned right. the first time i’d ever done that before, and the first time for many by the sound of it. going all the way down brookton was a strange experience, and it seems like a completely different road to the one we’re used to climbing. but it was hell-fun for a downhill junkie like myself, and it seemed to go on forever. then up the back of the hill for a steep steady climb to the chevin rd turnoff again.
i think that is one of the best climbing hills in perth for a cyclist; it feels like a shorter version of an alpine ascent to me, and one seldom sees a car on the road. great steady winding road, lots of shade, and a steady 7-10% climb. i settled into my own rhythm, and tried to keep it there till pete passed me. being a boy on a push bike, tried to follow, but didn’t have the legs to stay. then along came some big fella dressed in white, on an all white bike with no labels. i don’t know who he was, but he ended up joining us at the coffee shop. i followed him for a while till we caught and passed pete. then he left pete and i to battle it out as he went ahead. i was in a mood to play, so i passed pete and chased the white knight, only to run out of steam, and watch pete roar by me a few hundred meters from the top. i coasted up in about 6th or 7th again; whilst the order up front was: brendan – 10, bill – 7, warren – 5, stu & dan – 2 (deadheat)
we regrouped, and carried on straight over the undulations that took us back towards canning road. i remembered the road well from a cyclo-sportif event we did there a year and some ago. we were all together as we went through bickley valley, and took the usual old route to the bottom of mundaring weir road. brendan and i took the corner first, and i sat on his wheel for a few hundred meters until the others caught us. surprisingly i hung on almost until the hill flattens out before the long false flat. i really thought i may be in the points, until i looked down at my heart rate which was 192. i felt the imaginary elastic band connecting me to the group snap, and made a loud “ping” sound as i exited off the back. so no race up the last bit of the climb for me, but i was happy that i’d felt fine on all the climbs on the day. for those in front; the points at the top were: brendan – 10, stu – 7, warren – 5, bill – 3, dan – 1
i don’t know how many meters we ascended, but i’d guess it was around 1500; a good ride by any standard. the coffee was great as usual, but the croissant was overdone for the second week running; one more and we will have to register a complaint in writing! at least the service was good this week.
the ride back home was pleasant and uneventful; just a little too warm at around 35 degrees. the sprint to the first set of lights at the bottom of welshpool road is becoming increasingly competitive, with john b being the current favourite.
we chased and caught a fit looking rider on a cervelo t3 bike on the way to leach hwy, and kept a brisk pace all the way to albany hwy. then i left to make my way home via manning, only to find that the freeway bike path between canning and mt henry was closed, so i had to do an extra few km via mt pleasant. not a bad detour, but i felt hot and thirsty, and didn’t need the extra km at that stage. it was at the rowing club in that i passed dr ronnie, wearing leggings and long sleeves – i don’t get it.
another great ride with the bunch. also the end of my slack cycling phase, which has lasted since i got back from vietnam in october. next week i officially start training harder; the goal is to contest at least one hill each sunday by march. they say if you make your goals public, you have a better chance of achieving them. this is as public as i get!
after a successful outing on the bike yesterday, i decided to have a run at the hills to really test out how bad this cold has affected me. dr ronny’s big brother kenny was in town from over east and ronny wanted to make sure we took him out to see some hills. there were a number of our current routes we could have followed to show him the hillier parts of perth, but instead i mapped out a new one that meant that we had to go exploring. this is always dangerous as sometimes google maps does not exactly match the real world. i tried to add in a number of climbs that we generally have only done as descents. solidiers rd being the main one as this is one of the best mid-ride descents that we do when we head out to ride around rolystone.
about 20 or so riders toed the line this morning and dr paul and mark kicked things off with a couple of jokes. if you have every shared a table at the coffee shop with dr paul, you know that this can be a very dangerous thing. but always very funny. we headed out to albany hwy for a pleasant and uneventful trip to the base of the kahuna. we were not headed up the kahuna, but this was the back way into kelmscott and kept us off the main roads.
we then headed towards the base of canning mills rd which loomed large above us. i was saving this for later so we turned off just before the climb started. a slight detour and u-turn and we were soon on brookton hwy and going up our first categorised climb. this was a short section of brookton and was only to get us to the start of soldiers rd. it was only a cat 2 climb as the grade was not steep and the distance short.
stu set the pace from the start and i sat on his wheel. a couple of looks over the shoulder and the group was still pretty much together. it was going to come down to a sprint and when we saw the turn off, stu, kenny and i wound it up. it was a short sprint and then we had to negotiate a right hand turn to get into soldiers rd. i will be changing parts of this route soon.
stu – 5, peter – 3, kenny – 1.
i cannot remember the climb up soldiers rd. we have done it before, but it was probably well over a year ago, if not longer. i can remember coming down it so many times, but the grades and distances are deceptive when you are descending. we took off with mark and john leading the charge. it starts with a quick descent followed by a sharp uphill before leveling out for a bit. by the time we hit the main part of the climb, a group of 5 had established themselves at the front. stu was on the charge again with brendan marking him close by. kenny was climbing alongside and seemed to be doing it easily while jerry and i sat at the back hanging on as best we could.
the lower slopes with the nice hotmix surface were not too steep and no-one could really get away easy. as the road wound its way past churchman’s brook dam, it steepened up somewhat and the corners made it hard to know what was coming next. the corner where scott came off ages ago was actually quite steep when tackled form this direction and this is where brendan made a move. he said later that he had a look at stu’s heartrate monitor and thought that he was almost at max, so to hit him now. kenny easily went with him and i had to chase to try to get on.
i didn’t quite make it but kept the pace on as best i could to stay ahead of stu and maximize points. i was losing ground to brendan and kenny who were engrossed in their own tussle with little attacks on each other to see who would crack first. stu made up a bit of ground a couple of times, but i was constantly looking over my shoulder to see where he was and make sure he didn’t creep up on me. on the last few pinches of the climb, brendan managed to shake off kenny and had a nice gap at the top. a flattish section to the line provided a nice run for me to time trial up to kenny and pass him within about 50m of the finishline. sorry, but i needed the points. stu dropped jerry but he managed to hold on to fifth place.
brendan – 10, peter – 7, kenny – 5, stu – 3, jerry – 1.
we regrouped and headed down canns rd another road we usually do the other direction and this time it made a nice change. at the bottom we turned into carawatha but the other side from which we usually tackle. the descent is always fast so i expected that the climb would be hard and it was…a bit. it wasn’t as hard as the f_ckenberg and it certainly wasn’t easy, but overall it was a bit short to really cause any damage. everyone is usually panting when we come up the other side, but this side didn’t seem as brutal. kenny had shot up the hill like a rocket and brendan took off after him. it was a bit too steep for me and stu and jerry also left me behind. as it was not that long, there was no time to make up any ground and that is the finishing order.
kenny – 10, brendan – 7, stu – 5, jerry – 3, peter – 1.
we changed the route somewhat and headed down the other side of carawatha and onto albany hwy. as we turned onto brookton and about to head towards the base of canning mills rd, there was the depressing sound of air leaking out of a tyre. michael had another puncture. i think starting next year we will have a page of the most punctures during the saturday and sunday rides. i’m sure michael will “win”. as we pulled over to watch him change it, someone wondered out load where melvyn was. he was definitely with us a the top of the last climb, but had managed to disappear. i rode back up to the base of carawatha but didn’t see him. as i rode back to brookton, i heard him yell from a side street. he had got a puncture and had rolled around the corner to change it. i was lucky to see hear him as i didn’t see him at all. i rode back to the group to let them know what was going on and so we could wait for him.
we headed towards canning mills rd and to the dreaded climb. this is not a favourite of mine as it is just too steep for me to get into a proper rhythm. kenny and brendan took off up the road again and left me to my own world of pain. as i kept them in sight for a while, i watched kenny put in a number of attacks on brendan to try to break him, but he just set tempo and pulled him back each time. i eventually was past by stu but tried to keep him in sight to not concede much ground. i was starting to struggle a bit and found holding the effort for a long time a challenge. i started slipping back but it wasn’t till hugh caught up to me that i thought i better pull my finger out. a few hard pedal strokes and he was off my wheel. i kept the pressure on as best i could and eventually caught up with stu. it was close to the top of the climb so i continued to push to make sure he didn’t come with me as the hill flattened out. i saw brendan and kenny in the distance and i thought that i may be able to chase them down. however, they were playing a chase game of their own so were pushing a big gear as well to stay away.
i eventually made it to chevon rd and the official finish line but brendan and kenny were nowhere to be seen. they had continued up the road to the end. stu kept plugging away and stayed ahead of hugh till the end.
kenny – 10, brendan – 7, peter – 5, stu – 3, hugh – 1.
we took off along chevon rd and headed towards karagulen servo for a quick stop. the chevon rd used to be used a lot by us but back in the old days where we would only do one or two hills on a sunday. those days are long gone. a quick refill and we headed to pickering brook. a truck was held up as we climbed one of the bonus climbs but provided a nice draft for a couple of us as he slowly came past. nice to climb a hill with no effort. quite a few turned off as we headed through bickley valley as some were headed home while others were looking for a quick way to the coffee-shop. michael and mark managed to get a nice break on the rolling hills through bickley and started the last climb with a buffer. this has worked in the past for some riders and they were a dangerous pair to allow to escape.
as we climber the last little pinch before the mundaring weir climb, kenny changed down from the big ring wth an almighty crunch. chain off and he was stopped. bad timing, and this put him out of contention for the climb. i was also just off the back as the days efforts and lingering sickness were taking their toll on my energy levels. by the time i started the climb, brendan, stu and jerry were up the road. i couldn’t push my cardio up for an extended period so thought it best not to chase. being a sadomasochist (cyclist) i put it in the 53×14 gear and pushed a 40rpm seated cadence all the way to the top. i picked up and past a few riders but john managed to stay just ahead of me the whole way. just as we reached the last pinch, we saw another rider up ahead. it was mark hanging on to fifth spot and he was nervously looking over his shoulder to make sure he held it, which he did…just. in retrospect if i had pushed a descent gear at a constant tempo, there wasa chance i may have caught him and grabbed a extra point. unfortunately not the case.
brendan – 10, michael – 7, stu – 5, jerry – 3, mark – 1.
at the end of the day this meant that brendan was now 1 point ahead of me on the total november mountain points. that one extra point would have been good, but as he has “won” the weekly overall for two weeks, he would have still been ahead on a count back.
i’m getting tired and running out of time so i will summarise the return trip.
coffee shop was good if not a bit busy. there was a table booked where we usually sit.
no land speed records today on the descent as the wind was not favourable.
mr dickhead was in a small 4wd and decided that two lanes were not enough and passed us very close which made mark comment on the apparent small size of the drivers manhood. he took offence to that and words were exchanged.
no sprint along welshpool but john and melvyn did the work along the entire stretch.
a pretty messy sprint along berwick as traffic was everywhere and taking up both lanes. either melvyn or brendan got there first.
so, i made it to the end even though my top end is still a bit clogged up. a week off the bike didn’t heal me, so a week on the bike is planned for this week. see if i can blow it out of my system, or just blow up my system.
with a absolutely stunning day predicted, i expected a bumper turnout this morning but was left a bit under whelmed. around 15 or so decided to toe the line but we did manage to pick up a few more on the way. with the usual suspects like ryan and stu absent, i thought that i would have the mountain points all wrapped up. unfortunately for me, one of the riders we picked up on the way was mike. there was even a general murmur of “no points today” coming from the group. yes, it was true but on the other hand, having mike there meant that i would have to work a whole lot harder which will get me a whole lot fitter.
steve and i lead the group out and onto albany hwy at a leisurely pace. “fresh” from his 300km melbourne to warrnambool race a couple of weeks ago, he was also backing it up from a session on the track where he got the honour of being smashed by the likes of cj sutton, graeme brown and cam meyer. he was unsure on how he would go on the hills, but i thought i better keep an eye on him regardless.
the first climb of the day was up the kahuna. as we approached the foot of the climb, clare was doing circles around the roundabout waiting for the group to arrive. my aim was to stick with mike for as long as possible and see where it left me. i had my new “dr paul’s custom wheelset” on the bike which saved me a hundred grams overall. unfortunately as it was a rush job to get them on yesterday, i also managed to forget the speedo magnet and now realised that the derailleur could not access the easiest and hardest gear. well it could access the easiest, but that pinging noise that the spokes make as the rear derailleur brushes past them was not what i wanted to hear.
the climb got underway and the pecking order was quickly sorted out. i made tempo until mike came around me and then i latched onto his wheel, determined to hang on. steve was on our wheel for a while but detached somewhere along the first main pinch as the field really thinned out. i was watching my heartrate and listening to my breathing, but was really starting to struggle. as the road flattened out for the first “plateau” mike kept the effort up and rode away from me. i have talked about the same thing before and knew that i should also keep the effort up but my body said “no” as it had been abused for too long.
i rode tempo but looked around me to make sure that the gap was not reducing to the riders behind. mike’s gap was increasing ever so slowly as he ground his way up but i was more worried about the fact that riders were approaching from behind. i wasn’t sure at first, but a couple more looks confirmed steve closing fast. i was paying for my efforts to maintain mike’s pace and steve come past me and started chasing down mike. he came close to catching him too, but the road pitched up again and he didn’t quite make it.
the road flattened out again and i managed to recover enough to increase my pace to begin to chase down steve. no other riders were gaining from behind, so i just had to concentrate on catching him. another thing i notice about the new wheels is just how quiet they are. i scared the crap out of steve as i came past him and i tried to stay ahead. there was not far to go and it came down to a sprint for the line. the effort of catching him had me spent and my spew-meter was in the red. i fell a few metres short and came third. gregor the scottish mountain-biker from texas was back to show his climbing skills ans too fourth while clare was impressing some of the boys by kicking their arse to take out fifth.
mike – 10, steve – 7, peter – 5, gregor – 3, clare – 1.
a regroup had us at max numbers as we had also picked up doug on the climb. we had a nice fast descent down urch but soon the road pitched up and those with fast descending skills soon deferred to those with fast ascending legs. again the plan was to stick like glue to mike and see what happens. steve was fastened firmly to my wheel and we let mike set the tempo up the climb. luckily for me, the steepest part of peet rd is the section below the urch intersection and i managed to hold onto mike’s wheel till the top. we kept the pace up and did a couple of turns as we headed over the top and towards the school. the section past the fruit place always gets me as it is just steep enough to be painful especially after you think you have finished with the climbs. i dropped it back to the small ring while i noticed that steve and mike were still grinding away in the big.
mike hit the front again as we made the final run towards the school climb. steve and i were content to not help him as we were pretty sure that it would come down to a sprint. about halfway up the hill, steve started to come around with me on his wheel. the finish is deceptive and i made sure that i didn’t go too early (like the state champs race). i waited till the last moment and then started my sprint. steve stepped up and soon we were going side by side along the road seeing who could sustain the longest. after doing less time in the wind (ryan style) i had the fresher legs and he conceded. the spots for fourth and fifth also came down to a sprint with clare out gunning gregor for the points.
peter – 10, steve – 7, mike – 5, clare – 3, gregor – 1.
claire takes the hill
we were all present and accounted for and ready to rock and roll when we noticed that melvyn hadn’t arrived yet. he eventually turned up after suffering a bit of chain trouble when his quick link detached and he was riding sans chain. luckily the two pieces didn’t fall off so he could reattach quite easily. we headed down brookton hwy and onto the foot of canning mills rd.
as we turned onto the road leading to the hill, there was a call of “flat” so we passed it down the line. after the debacle of last week, it was good to see the group looking out for each other. after gregor fixed his flat we were off with the base of the climb starting only fifty metres away.
i was following my same game plan again but found myself boxed in a bit. mike was starting to move away from the front and i couldn’t get past. i quickly sprinted around to catch his wheel, but was not sure at what cost my legs had paid. this is a particularly steep and brutal climb but it is fairly consistent the whole way up. it makes it easy to get into a tempo and stay there. unfortunately it was easy for mike to get into a tempo that was obviously faster than i could handle. i lost ground after staying with him for a short time. gregor had been on my wheel just before the road steepened up but had slot ground when mike “took off”. i found my rhythm but was surprised when he caught back up to me. mike was surging ahead, and we were all losing ground, but i didn’t think that i was going that slow. no disrespect to gregors climbing ability, but i just don’t like being caught. soon steve came up beside us too. pushing a big gear doing strength endurance efforts, he ground his way past us. as the pitch of the road changed a bit he slipped back and gregor and myself began chasing mike down.
the last part of this climb really flattens off and is in stark contrast to the first section where trees and curves in the road give way to long straight open roads. quickly changing up the gears we tried to increase the pace to make up some ground on mike. it was a bit of a wasted effort in that respect, but i also wanted to distance myself from any other challengers to the points. about halfway to chevin road which was the rendezvous point, i put it in the big ring and put in a big effort to shake gregor. i didn’t want it to get to a sprint situation so managed to distance myself from him and maintain the gap to the end. mike was nowhere to be seen as he had finished the climb and just kept going to keep the legs moving. after a short wait, steve came in with clare and paul on his wheel, but managed to keep it in that order and maintaining paul’s 6th place just out of the points for the third climb in a row.
mike – 10, peter – 7, gregor – 5, steve – 3, clare – 1.
we rolled towards pickering brook but had lost three riders before we got there with various people having early commitments. after a regroup at pickering brook a split formed and five more took off for an early mark, opting for a quick descent down welshpool instead of a climb up the weir road. across the rolling hills before the main climb, john managed to get a bit of a break, but i was mainly concerned with hanging close to mike and steve. by the time we started the climb, there were a few guys already up the road. paul and steve said that i should probably go hard now, but i looked back at how close mike was decided to wait to see what he did. i didn’t really have a choice as he took off like a rocket and i had to sprint to get on board.
we passed the others on the climb like they were standing still and i was only just holding on for dear life. i started to wonder how long i could hold this pace for, but soon got my answer. we had just passed john who had the early break, and i started to slip off mike’s wheel. a couple of efforts to stay on really just buggered me up rather than kept me on and i slipped back. i tried to get into a tempo, but struggled under the weight of the previous effort and was not going as well as i could. i made my way up the bottom section of the climb, but looked back to see that john was gaining on me and soon grabbed my wheel. john has never been a climber and i can still remember his first saturday ride with us. a combination of new bike syndrome and some good training (maybe epo) has seen some god improvements lately.
judd the man in black.
we continued up the climb with mike nowhere in sight. we came to the last little pinch before it flattens out and i urged john to stay on my wheel. he dropped back a bit as we hit the flatter section, but a bit of yelling forced an effort out of him to get back on. as we started that long straight, i could just make out the figure of mike disappearing around the bend up ahead. we hammered along the “flat” and entered the last pinch of the day. i knew that john would not hold my wheel here after all the efforts he did on the bottom of the climb, so i yelled some encouragement at him before he dropped back. actually, i said “keep looking behind you and ride like you stole something. don’t let him catch you”. i made my way up the final climb and onto the roundabout. john managed to keep fresh air between him and the chasers, but it seems that steve caught gregor near the end and relegated him to fifth. i’m pretty sure paul took sixth again.
mike – 10, peter – 7, john – 5, steve – 3, gregor – 1.
by the time we hit coffee the numbers had dwindled dramatically.
steve, peter, paul, lorraine, mike b, anna, john & gregor – 1.
conversation ranged from what to eat while riding, to bec’s crash at the track last night, to davina riding with a broken arm, to lance’s comeback and what contador will do, to what brendan and steve’s partners got up to last night at the track. coffee’s, cake and coke (the non-tom boonen kind) devoured we were on our way.
quite a uneventful ride home as the smaller group means less egos to stroke. john broke away for the sprint at the welshpool rd maccas only to discover no-one was chasing. steve and i made a move on the hill heading into the final sprint but sat up once we rolled down the other side. this allowed paul to wipe the voodoo of the 6th place away to take the sprint at the lights.
so, not the best turn out but this allowed the points to be spread around a bit more. i had been told today that the state crit champs are actually on saturday next week, not sunday like most races are. this means that i will be missing the saturday ride, but will probably be available for sunday mountain points, to defend my lead.
a quick look at the current weather on the web this morning showed a nice 9 degrees. i was a bit dubious as it did seem cold in the house when i got up but at least it was not showing something like 2 deg. it was a bit brisk, but nothing to really complain about and i was sure today’s route would get things warm as soon as we hit the hills.
the city2surf claimed a few of our regular riders today with ryan, rob and heiko deciding that they would rather run than ride. we could hear the pre-race festivities from our side of the river while we waited for the allotted hour to arrive. jumping ahead a bit, i did ask mike b later why he wasn’t doing the run today. he said that he gets disappointed that he can’t beat his best time anymore. he came second one year with a time of 36min. that was quite a few years ago though. kind of makes sense now why he is so fast in the hills.
anyway, we still had a good group of regulars and some return riders like josie toe the line this morning. about 15 riders all up i would say, with dr paul and dr greg starting with us, but doing their own thing once we hit the hills. the route today would be a challenging one. up the kahuna and down urch before up the rest of peet rd to rolleystone high school. down brookton hwy and through some back streets before up canning mills rd to join back up with the top of the kahuna, before the usual way to kalamunda via mundaring weir rd. four climbs and some bonus’ for a total of just under 100 kms. hopefully it wouldn’t rain.
so we rolled out and headed towards albany hwy. the pace was pleasant and gave everyone an opportunity to have a chat. as we past carousel shopping centre, steve got a flat, but told us not to bother waiting as he had an issue with his tyre anyway. i was in two minds as we usually wait for flats, but we were still close to the city and he would be right to get home if he was in trouble. we left him to his misery and pushed on.
as we approached the base of the kahuna, there was someone doing laps of the roundabout just before it. it turned out to be clare who was patiently waiting for us to arrive. the road up the kahuna starts off gentle before it kicks up to it’s average gradient and luckily it was the gentle section we were on when my phone rang. it turned out to be steve, who had fixed his flat and was now looking for us. he had not done the kahuna before and i was trying to give him directions while i started the climb proper (gotta love hands free kit). i tried to make it as clear as i could in between breaths, and i also gave him other directions in case he got lost. he said that he would call in about half and hour when we should have got to the second regroup point. i wasn’t sure that we would see him again.
so the group hit the hill and everyone settled into their respective positions according to climbing ability. the kahuna can be quite steep in places but also contains a number of shallower gradient sections (i can’t really say flat) that either give you respite, or break your rhythm. i find that it breaks my rhythm as i tend to spin out more and use different muscle groups that then also start hurting.
mike and stu found their place at the front and i jumped on their wheel to try to hold on as long as i possibly could. it seemed like a long time and i was pretty happy, but in reality, it was probably still on the first steep section on the climb. they began to power away with that slow steady “grind out the hill” style that both of them have. as they got further and further away it was clear that i was not going to be able to catch back on without some type of motor attached to my bike. i began to wish that i was 50 year old. both those guys are well on the wrong side of 40 and we cannot keep up with them in the hills. i hope that i am going that strong when i grow up. however, i am thinking that it probably has more to do with the years of marathon running that both these whippets had done in their earlier years.
so i am drifting back and am trying to set myself a nice tempo. i look back and find that ben is gaining on me and soon over takes me. bugger. i continue my tempo and allow ben a bit more space ahead of me. i am hoping that once we hit the shallower gradient towards the top, i can regain a bit of ground. i manage to up my pace and catch back up to ben. i put in a hard, but consistent effort and manage to shake him from my wheel before we hit the top. mike had dropped stu before the top, and i ended up within 75 – 100 metres of stu by the time we reach the regroup point.
as we regrouped, both the effort of the climb and the increasing daylight meant that it was beginning to warm up. holly (pictured) took off her vest to reveal a fat cyclist jersey underneath that matched her fatty socks. if you haven’t heard of fatty, there is a link on my “other blogs” to the right and even though he blogs mostly about mountain biking, he has many an insight into riding and balancing his passion with his wife’s illness. it makes you realise how good we have it sometimes.
so we headed for the next climb up urch and peet. this at least was preceded by a nice descent down part of urch before the road kicked up again. once it did, a bunch of riders like stan, ben and melvyn took advantage of their momentum and started to smash it up the other side. stu also came past and i was determined not to give him too much head start, so jumped across to his wheel. mike also made his way up through the pack and was on my wheel when we all joined ben. melvyn and stan had dropped back by the time we turned the corner onto peet and ben managed to hold on for a little way before he also fell off the back. the boys must have been kind to me, or i was finally warm after the first climb as i managed to stay with them to the top.
as we crested the hill, mike lead us out towards the high school and to the state champs finish line. after a few turns, mike pushed for the last effort up the climb with stu and i sucking wheels to get a good lead-out. stu eventually went so i jumped on his wheel and waited for the last 50 m to come around for the sprint. i barely had enough to stay in front of him as he also turned it up a notch heading towards the line. it’s good, as we both need practice sprinting for that line as two races this year had already finished there and both came down to a bunch sprint. a couple of riders later, steve also made it to the line. he had come up the kahuna but then across chevin rd and into the top of peet road to meet up with the rest of the group.
after a regroup we headed down brookton hwy to give the legs a bit of respite. we don’t often climb up brookton and i remembered why as we were descending. it is not really that hard as we had to pedal quite a bit to maintain speed on the descent. we turned just before the road joined back up with albany hwy and took a couple of back streets. steve asked whether there was a house down here i was looking at buying as it did seem a bit off the beaten track for us. unfortunately, no, we were on the right road and soon we were at the base of canning mills rd.
this is the steeper side of the kahuna and averages about 9% for the steep section. it flattens off towards the top and is not as long as the kahuna, but much, much harder. however, it is fairly consistent and does not contain many “flat” spots that break the rhythm when climbing. you can set yourself a nice pace to the top, but it is when you want to chase others that you will get into trouble and blow-up.
i know that stu headed up the road pretty early in the climb and i had nothing to go with
him. ben caught and past me about halfway up after i started to fade. steve surprised me with how fast he came past, and i expected him to blow up as he had never done this climb before and didn’t know what was around the corner. luckily for him, and probably more testament to his ability, he maintained a good pace to the top and didn’t pop. after that, my memory gets a bit fuzzy and i remember there being another rider up the road. it was probably mike, but i can’t be sure as i know that stu stayed away from everyone on the climb. i just ground my way to the top and was happy to be there.
this climb took a bigger toll on the group and we had to wait a bit longer for all the riders to come in. it is a really challenging climb so we don’t do it that often. but to do it as the third climb in a set of four is just cruel. but sometime you have to be cruel to… get a laugh… i mean be kind. it will make all the riders stronger in the long run so it can’t be that bad.
as we turned to follow the rest of the kahuna rd back towards pickering brook, josie took off back down the hill to head home. her knee was not feeling 100% so she did not want to risk it with another climb. the rest of us ambled our way through the back blocks of canning mills and on to pickering brook. holly had said that she was going to skip the final climb and go straight to coffee. peer pressure made sure that she came with us in the end.
on the little rolling hills (that seem big by now to your legs) stu managed to get away a bit and headed into the final climb with about 50 m or so. jerry went hard as soon as the hill started and thought that he could get some advantage that could be whittled away. in reality he just caught and past stu and paid the price to get there. mike came up from behind and i jumped on his wheel as he moved up behind stu. the four of us started the climb together but it would not stay that way for long. jerry was first to step off after mike moved to the front and set the pace that he was comfortable with. i hung onto stu’s wheel as long as i could and thought i was doing really well when we reached the part where there is a fence and wall on the right. after doing this climb a hundred times, i know that it is not far to the “flat” section on this climb. unfortunately, i also know that the road pinches up ever so slightly more that what we were climbing.
the pace and pitch was too much for me and i also had to step off the train. i tried to set myself a tempo with the hope that i could catch back up when it flattened out. i looked back and saw jerry not that far back and thought that we could work together to catch stu and mike. i eased up my pace and let him get on before starting to wind it up along the “flat”. i thought that if i could out in a hard effort, then jerry could smash the last bit of the hill and maybe catch them as they were still in sight. jerry had the same idea and came around me early and set a high pace. i went as the road got steeper again and realised that i really didn’t have that much left in my legs. i made it almost to the top before jerry came back past me within 10 metres of the kom line. we were probably 100 metres behind stu and mike.
as the rest of the group came into the coffee shop i was surprised to see bec finishing to high in the pack. she said that she finally was feeling good and managed to go hard on the last climb to beat in half the guys. the coffee stop was good today and soon we were off and running again. a nice descent down welshpool and we stayed together for much of it. i pushed hard on the last bit of hill to make sure the speedo clocked over 80 km/h and came past the rest of the group. it did cost me dearly as i then had nothing when jerry and stan headed up the road together. i jumped in behind the others and sat in for the majority of the chase. as we approached the curve in the road, i found my legs enough to do a cancellara and time trialed across the gap to come past the boys at the front. by the time we got through the lights at the highway, the group was all back together.
no sprint at the end of welshpool and we had it saved up for the final push up berwick. i was on the front (again) leading into the sprint when brett and anna came flying past on the slight rise before the lights at george st. i didn’t react as i was sure that they would get stuck at the lights. as they were waiting behind a left turning car when the lights went green, i jumped into the right hand lane and sprinted past them and up over the hill. i looked back and saw jerry closing fast but thought that i had to keep going to stay away. i did ease back on the descent to conserve as much energy for when he jumped, but realised that i probably didn’t have much left in reserve. as i started to run out of puff he came along side and we both looked at each other. i shrugged indicating that i was done, but he didn’t go as he thought that it was mean making me do all the work to just take out the final 100 metres. i was cool with that so we ambled towards maccas. however, when i looked back i saw bec coming off steve’s wheel and heading towards us fast. we didn’t really have enough time to react and she had way too much momentum so overtook us for the final sprint win of the day.
so a good day but a tough one with the number and severity of the climbs we tackled. i can’t say that we will do an easy one next week, as we must punish those that had forsaken us to go running instead. also, since it is fathers day, the blokes should be allowed to stay out longer to do a big ride. i know it doesn’t work like that, but it is worth a try.
ride report by peter video to follow. with the mercury under 2 degrees at 7 this morning, i was expecting a poor showing. with the course i had mapped out for this ride, i was also expecting a poor showing. i was pleasantly surprised to see close to 20 toe the line ready for a big day. the course today was a bit of a monster and took in a number of the hard climbs around roleystone. first we would tackle the kahuna before taking on peet rd up to the high school. a descent down brookton hwy would bring us out at the bottom of canning mills rd which would take us back to the top of the kahuna. a trek along the top before dropping through bickley valley and back up mundaring weir rd to kalamunda. four major climbs would make this a decent effort for the morning.
we were about to head off sans ryan again, when young jordan from a couple of weeks ago turns up in a ute. he gets out all kitted up and his “driver” takes the bike out of the tray and he is ready to roll. we all wish we had a support crew like that. as we turned onto mill point rd, ryan turns up just in time…again. as we make our way through the suburbs, i notice that rachael was no longer with us. i’m guessing she heard today’s route and opted for an easier day. i could be wrong and maybe she thought it was too easy and went to find some harder hills.
we eventually hit albany hwy and worked our way down towards gosnells. we had briefly lost john to a call of nature and i was thinking much the same thing. just after the road bridged over roe hwy, i ducked off behind a bus shelter and into the bushes. what seemed like a good kilo lighter, i chased for a bit to get back on the group just as they were coming through maddington. a good stop for me as i lessened the weight i was going to carry up the hill and the chase put some warmth back into my fingers and a bit in my toes.
we turned up mills rd west and picked up doug along the way. the kahuna loomed above us and i let the fast boys know where we were going to regroup. jordan left it in the big ring and started grinding his way up. i managed to hold his wheel for a while before a gap appeared and the guys behind moved around to fill it. i couldn’t maintain and had to let them go. i watched jordan tow matt, robbie, ryan and rob towards the top. i was stuck in no-mans land with no riders to be seen i managed to keep ahead of the one behind, but could not make ground on the guys up the road. stu started at the back of the pack and was working his way through. he easily dispatched me and worked his way to the front group. from what i could see, he didn’t quite make it but caught rob who had dropped off the pace. apparently jordan could not hold the big ring for the whole climb and had to drop it back a notch. ryan claims that he took him at the top, but i am not sure of the context. i am assuming he was talking about the race to the top… on the bike… who knows.
we regrouped at the turn and bid farewell to jordan who was only using our ride as a gap filler before his shop one started at nine. we traveled down urch and started our next climb after a short sharp descent. i left it in the big ring and tried to power up the other side. unfortunately, the other side is quite long and i started to run out of puff. ryan came past and i jumped on his wheel. as the climb progressed, we shook off mel and bella who relished the descent, but mat and robbie were not far behind.
we turned up peet rd and ryan set a decent tempo. to hard for me, he gapped me and i had to let him go. robbie, with his bouncy style, hopped up the road and onto ryans wheel. i was again caught in the middle but managed to stay away from any of the chasers. on the descent, i eased off enough for mel and rob to catch up. as peet rd became raeburn and the road starts to climb again, rob came to the front and stepped up the pace. it was enough to shake mel but i just sat neatly on his wheel. as we approached the state champs finish line at roleystone highschool, we were caught by another couple of riders and my memory is vague, but i think it was stu and mat. taking off from the same spot as the state champs masters race, i came around rob, who was spent from too much time on the front, and took line honors in our group. as the group came in, melvyn started to make excuses about spending the last couple of weeks in spain not riding. he was going to take a short-cut, but through the power of peer pressure, we convinced him to keep going.
up this high, the fog had rolled in and we could not see very far at all. we were going to take a right turn across brookton hwy not very far from where the accident happened last week. mat and phil were riding with that group last week, but as most of them were off the bike, they were out with us instead. we stopped at the intersection and allowed people to put their flashing lights on, just to be safe. you could hear the cars coming, but not see them properly at all. we listened for a break in traffic and headed off for our descent. we kept a single file all the way down and the road was not really conducive to high speeds as it continually flattens out. we past a couple of groups heading up the hill and it surprised me how many were out in the cold weather.
speaking of cold, it was so cold that i got an ice-cream headache on the way down. the fog turned out to be more like low cloud as it wasn’t to be seen after we were halfway down the hill. doug and i swapped off turns to keep the pace high and we led the train to the bottom. we turned right just before we hit albany hwy and regrouped before heading to the base of canning mills rd. this climb has been used as the perth hill climb championships as it is a fairly consistent gradient to the top. it basically heads up for around 2 ½ kms at just under 9 % before flattening to 2.5 % for a further 2 kms.
i was on the front as we started the climb as people did not know where to go and managed to gap the field a bit. after the previous efforts i was not sure how i would go, but i preferred to be chased rather than chasing. i held off the boys for quite a while but was caught by ryan, robbie and mat. i still managed to hold wheel for a bit as ryan was still grinding big gears today so was not out to sprint off on everyone. stu caught up with us and came around. robbie chased him down and took off up the road. stu held a gap to us, but mat, ryan and i all kind of stayed together for the majority of the climb.
once the road flattened out, ryan and i stepped on the pace to catch up with stu. matt was spat out the back and had to fend for himself, while robbie was long gone. the climb really sorted the field out as it took quite a while for all the riders to filter back in for the regroup.
we headed across to canning rd through the windy track that is the extension of canning mills rd. mr dickhead was driving a old crappy sedan today as he sped up to pass us only to turn right into a driveway just after. he couldn’t have waited that extra 5 sec. as we waited to regroup on canning rd, the “mid-life crisis harley Davidson club” came past with about 50 or so riders. apart from that, it was a fairly uneventful trip with just the usual attacks on t
he rolling hills heading towards pickering brook.
on our final regroup, a number of riders opted for the straight to the coffee shop route or straight down welshpool rd and home. the rest of us were going to head back up mundaring weir rd. as we went to turn onto glenisla rd, we were held up by the “mid-life crisis huge 4wd club” as about 50 of the damn things were coming the other way. this gave stu and doug a headstart as they managed to get through the turn beforehand.
we didn’t really chase and they held their advantage as we came down the glenisla hill at 70 kmph. mel the daredevil flew past me as i must have been holding her up.
when the climb started up mundaring weir rd, ryan took off like a scalded cat in a bid to try to catch stu. a paced myself up with robbie and rob and we caught ryan who had eased off once he caught stu. no lead change for the majority of the climb as we all sat in a line behind stu. as we came towards the top of the steeper section, ryan started dicking around with his gears. he was trying to get it into the big ring, but it wouldn’t go in. in the meantime, stu was continuing to grind away up the hill and had started to gap us again. i yelled some abuse at ryan, and told robbie, who was on his wheel, to go around him as he was slowing us down. rob, who was behind me, thought that i was talking to him so he came around all of us to chase down stu.
once we hit the flattish section i came to the front to lead out the group into the final climb. when we were just about there, ryan shot past like a bout of gastro (very fluid, but not much substance). the rest of the guys came around me to try to chase him down, while i was left to complete the climb on my own.
a nice pleasant coffee stop today as it was not that cold sitting outside. there were lots of groups of riders also replenishing their carbo and caffeine supplies at kalamunda and a few familiar faces were seen. we set off for the run home and i had a good descent on welshpool rd. i had to come around ryan towards the bottom and topped out at 79km/h. bella beat everyone hitting about 81 km/h.
as we turned onto welshpool proper, ryan informed us we had a few passengers. the glenn parker group that jordan had left us to meet up with had caught us after the coffee and was now attached to our group. we started rolling through to share the load and made our way back to albany hwy. the glenn parker boys turned off there and we made our way along berwick.
ryan led the pack from kent rd lights along berwick where we were heading towards our final sprint. i said to him that he should lead out and then sprint to make sure he had to work hard. we got caught at george st lights and he started dicking around with his gears again. his usual tactic to force someone else to lead out. screw this i thought and took off from the lights hard. i managed a gap quickly and pushed hard over the small hill. maxing out the heart rate at 188 bpm i eased off a bit as i crested and coasted down the hill a bit for recovery. i put the power down again and kept looking back to see if i would be caught. the only riders i could see were a fair way back so i guessed that i was safe. sitting up and cruising in i was past just at the end by a 4wd. sucking along behind at 60 km/h was ryan who claimed line honours. unfortunately he received too much outside assistance and has been relegated to last place. shame, ryan, shame. it’s almost as bad as doping.
so a good ride but definitely a tough morning in the saddle. just over 100 kms by the time i got home and over 1300m of climbing. my form seems to be coming back slowly but surely, however, the late night tour de france coverage is still playing havoc.
part 1, – only because i scrambled home after the last climb. I encourage anyone who was
1. close to the front.. or
2. made it to the cafe
to fill in the rest.
sunday morning could be described as cold – but not too bad. the wind was coming from somewhere but didnt really play a factor in the days activities.
todays route had us going up canning mills rd, or did it, most of us were confused, was this cohuna? so i stepped in… “definitely canning mills road”, that made me the leader for the first part. this would be the only correct piece of info i would dish our for the day. i guess i was still distracted by the amazing mr dickhead, must have been the same guy from the saturday ride, who swung straight into the car parking spot i had been waiting 5 minutes for at the shops on saturday afternoon, who refused to move or apologise no matter how loud my protests.
a fairly ugly looking bunch today, luckily bella joined us for her second day in a row in the hills despite a physics exam tomorrow. as the minutes ticked past 7am and after a bit of banter in the carpark Mark reached deep into his lycra and produced a measuring device….a portable bike scale, to become the official (enough) bike weight measurer for the group. nice work, but still some calibration required as mine came out heavier than anticipated – back to the drawing board.
about 16 brave souls headed down the new route to albany hwy, via manning road. stuart and mike b led the way for a fair chunk at a decent pace. mark and i found ourselves at the front after cannington and worked up a sweat as we pace the group down albany hwy to gosnells.
at the tonkin hwy lights i told ryan the regoup point thinking that is all the instructions required . we held a moderate pace down connell ave to the end, ryan kept asking, “is this the climb yet”, not yet ryan. I found myself at the back of the pack as we swung left into luchich to start the ascent, if only we were heading in the right direction, a quick u-turn and off to canning mills we went.
back on track, we snaked our way up canning mills which can be described as nasty. I initially stayed at the back while ryan, mark, stuart and jerry led the way. mike b was back in the pack taking it easy, well for about 10 seconds, he held a consistent strong pace, picking off riders one by one and caught the lead guys somewhere near the top. as i took the initial climb easy i had a little in reserve (despite holding 180bpm for the climb) and soon found myself holding jerrys wheel with mark a few meters ahead (no chance of passing either). stuart, ryan and mike b were the first to the top, with evidence that stuart held on for the kom points (if only i told ryan the correct regroup point). so telling everyone to regroup at urch was a mistake, as stu and mike headed off to the correct regroup point (wasnt fast enough to reach them) with ryan waiting with us. no one seemed to mind too much and ryan sped off to round up the pace setters (sorry guys and gals). Bella complained that her rear derailleur was playing up and she was locked out of some easier gears (this didnt seem to slow her down on the climbs).
the steep descent down urch is always fun and a little scary especially as you hit a bend just after the last really steep section. the climb out of urch onto peet and then to the school hurts a lot. with ryan, stu, mike, mark and gerry setting the pace i found myself behind drmarc and bella with shao on my tail. shao pushed me on the steep parts so i decided to dish out a bit of pain on the flats and just as he would get back on my wheel again i would accelerate again (now i am starting to understand this theory of inflicting damage). dont know who was first to roleystone but marc beat me to the top in our own little mini comp.
After a short break we all headed off down brookton hwy to the servo. The pace was definitely on as we descended the hill with mark, melvyn and ryan pushing for the karragullen sprint points (where-ever they are measured?). At the servo, no one seemed to want a coke or a gatorade so we headed off but found ourselvesamongst another group of CRT riders (chain reaction training). the CRT group seemed to have many more x chromosomes that y (a point not lost on some of the group). so whilst mark, marc and i took it in turns to smash out a decent average at the front of the pack (later joined by stu, jerry and ryan), dr carl, todd and melvyn enjoyed the view from the back. dr jerry’s excuse was retinal hypoxia – or something.
as we headed down toward the observatory turn off we were passed in the opposite direction by the ultimate bogan mobile (a black SS clubmanute with spoilers, flares, 20 inch mags, lowered at the front and raised at the back- the mining boom has a lot to answer for), todd and i had a chuckle. The climb to the observatory was uneventful with Stu leading the usual suspects at break neck speed and those not fit enough to hang on falling behind. As ryan stole the KOM points in the last metres from stu, i found myself a few hundred metres back battling with dr marc again with the heart rate well and truly in the red zone.
at this point we debated where to go to next, others wanted to do mundaring weir road but my vote was for lawnbrook since we had not done that for a while and since it was the designiated route, convinced them that we should. the run down walnut was fun and i decided to take it it easy up lawnbrook. at the top I heard that dr gerry hurt mark and I think ryan hurt himself as he said that he was feeling like crap.
I will leave it to someone else to finish the day off as I headed for home with a few other at this point… thanks everyone for a great ride.
well sunday arrived and as i said yesterday, if my form is as crap as saturday then it will be a really short blog. luckily it was semi-ok for the first two climbs then crap for the second two, so don’t expect a good read once we get to the observatory.
the course would take us down to roleystone and up canning mills rd, down urch and back up peet to roleystone high school. past karragullen and head over the observatory and back up lawnbrook to the coffee shop.
21 starters this morning and one extra picked up along berwick st. the morning was cool but not too bad as the predicted 33 degrees meant that as soon as the sun was up the temperature would follow. a fairly strong, cool easterly made things interesting as we headed out along albany hwy.
a very uneventful ride out to the hills as no-one no dropped glasses or chains like yesterday. dr paul and dr greg turned off early and decided to tackle the kahuna instead. we continued on to canning mills rd which would take us to the same point anyway. this climb has been used a number of times as the state hill climb championships. it is a very constant grade of close to 9% for just over 2.5 kms before it flattens off to a 2% for about a km.
as the road pointed up michael rocketed off the front to try to get as much advantage as possible. mike upped the pace to follow him and young robbie went too. michael put a bit much into his early attack and mike overtook him with robbie in tow. i put in as much effort as i thought i could without blowing up, which goes against everything i have written previously. after yesterday, though, i was a bit wary of my form in the hills.
i managed to pick up michael but was not having much luck keeping mike and robbie in sight. stu set his tempo and came past me too but i managed to keep within 30 or so metres of him. looking back down the road there was a nice pack forming with michael, jerry and brendon from yesterday, who was discovering hills after a few years at kalgoorlie. my recovery was certainly better than yesterday and i managed to keep my heart within the 180 bpm’s without getting into oxygen debt. as the road flattened stu put the power down a bit and managed to extend over me, but didn’t really get any closer to mike and robbie. i was happy just to keep going to the top where we regrouped at the turn to chevin rd.
i asked robbie whether he let the old man win as mike must be closer to 50 than 40 and robbie has just turned 16. he said that he didn’t know where we were stopping so just stayed with him to the end. not good for us as it meant that he must have had quite a bit more in reserve. anyway, it wasn’t going to be a concern to me today as i was happy just to be close to the front on the climbs. the remainder of the pack scrambled their way up the climb before we headed onto part of the state road championship course.
a quick, very quick descent on urch rd before climbing up onto peet rd lay ahead. michael and i decided to push the descent to try to get a big break on mike and robbie before the climb started. it is steep, fast descent and i hit 82 km/hr at the bottom. mark was even faster and came past both michael and myself to start the climb first. mark used to be the one that would hurt us on the climbs but a number of overseas work trips have played havoc with his training and is also struggle to find form. michael and i started pushing to get a gap, but by the time we turned onto peet rd, the others were only 20 metres behind.
i pushed as hard as i dared and managed to drop michael but robbie came up to me quite easily. he wanted to know where the next regroup point was so he could see if he could give it to mike on the climb. he left me behind and mike came past as well to join him. i set a tempo and managed to get stuck in no-mans land between them and a group with michael, jerry and stu. as we approached the final pinch up to roleystone high school, i was caught by the chase group and jumped on stu’s wheel. he put in a nice effort up to the “finish-line” of the state road championships and i was not anywhere near holding his wheel. robbie had out gunned mike on the line too. we regrouped as everyone made their way up and headed to karragullen for a refuel or pit-stop. simon managed to use the right toilet this time.
from karragullen to pickering brook is undulating with one short “bonus” climb towards the end. we tend to set a nice pace as most of it is downhill but someone always goes on the climb to see what will happen. it is usually me and i usually get past quickly. this time i thought i would wait to see and mike decided to take off. i jumped on his wheel and managed to keep up as it is not that steep. however, the previous efforts were taking their toll and i couldn’t hold his wheel. i signaled for the others to come around and let about five of them head off into the distance while i picked up the pieces.
at the pickering brook intersection, we regrouped and lorraine decided to take a short-cut straight to the coffee shop. it was her first time out to the hills with us and she did well as we tackled some very steep climbs. stu and i led the pack as we headed to the start of the climb on the easy side of the observatory. the wind was strong enough to make it difficult and i noticed that my thighs were starting to cramp. bugger. another side-effect of being on holidays. as i was not in a routine i was a bit hit and miss with my supplements and so missed quite a bit of magnesium. i had this problem earlier and the supplements certainly helped the situation, but now it was starting again.
as the hill started i pulled over to the edge to let everyone else past and managed to stick with a small group to get to the top. i thought that maybe i could conserve enough energy to get a good run at the last climb which was coming up soon. i’m pretty sure i saw robbie and mike take off from the others towards the end of the climb though. another regroup and we headed into the nice fast descent down the steep side of the observatory. i noticed robbie really struggling to keep up on the descent and was still in his small chanring. being 16 he is still gear restricted so is not allowed to push big gears yet. it makes it hard when you need that extra bit of speed.
as soon as we hit the other side, mike took off hard and michael and i tried to match him. not today. i quickly went into damage control mode and just tried to set a rhythm that i could handle. robbie took off after mike and stu came past me too. well actually almost everyone came past me. about half way up i was caught by a small group and i managed to sit on for a while. camille put a big effort in and i tried to stay on her wheel. when i got up out of the saddle my thighs began to cramp so i just had to sit back down and let her go. simon chased her down but it was the last i saw of them. as the gradient leveled out a bit todd flashed past me happy to inflict some payback pain in me. i managed to jump on dr marc’s wheel and received a nice draft to the regroup point.
coffee awaited us although we lost stu, mike and camille as they headed home early. we hit the coffee shop to find the table all ready for us with water and all. lorraine had managed to set it all up while she waited for us to arrive. it certainly made for a pleasant surprise and i thank her for that. i think that the coffee
shop might finally understand that if they get us served quickly we will leave quickly. service was quite good overall.
the trip home was fairly uneventful although the boys tried to light it up a few times on welshpool rd. my legs were too shattered to chase so i hung on to the back markers with muscle memory the only thing keeping my legs turning. we managed to drop riders off along the way as people found their own way home. the final sprint was approaching and the pack was down to about ten riders. the boys were a bit hesitant as no-one wanted to lead out. my legs were gone so i decided to lead out as there was no way i could sprint. coming into the final stretch, michael and jerry both came around and it looked like a dead heat but michael conceded that jerry just got him on the imaginary line. we don’t actually know where the line is, but we just sprint till people give in. well i have to send a search party out to find my form, but hopefully i can get it together sooner rather than later.
